Buenos Aires, AR

Once we stepped out off the plane at the international airport in Buenos Aires, I could immediately notice the difference in the air from that of Germany and the impeding winter that was on our tails. With the worries of the European passport controls behind us, Dan was finally able to exhale and take in the city.

We had found an apartment rental in Recoleta, an upscale neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.  Our apartment complex was equipped with a dry and wet sauna, rooftop pool and hot tub, which Dan took advantage of during our afternoon siestas.  Another clue to the area’s wealth were the many dogwalkers around the neighbourhood.

This was my favorite part of my day, drinking my cafe con leche, nibbling my medialunas (croissants, or direct translation:  ‘half moon’), and watching the pups walk along in groups of as large as 12 leashes wide. Recoleta was close enough to some of the sights in central Buenos Aires, but we were definitely realizing how spoiled we were with the walkable cities in Europe.  While the city was pretty easy to navigate with its grid system, alot of the sites were widely spread amongst the city.  Even the football stadium is commonly off the main map.  But, we managed to see most of what the tour books advised us to see, although it took a lot of walking, a couple of metro rides and a cab ride or two.

Luckily, one of the most beautiful parts of the city (in our opinion), was within blocks of our apartment, which included Plaza Intendente Torcuato de Alvear, where we spent most of our time drinking beer and on one occasion, were lucky enough to catch the Artisan market. It also included the famous Recoleta Cemetery and Eva Peron’s final resting place.

We spent a good hour strolling through the cemetery and admiring mausoleum after mausoleum. On a different day, we ventured out a little further and came upon the Floralis Genérica, who’s dramatic size and shape impressed Dan so much, he reverted to what I call ‘photographic diarrhea’, where he would take snap after snap of the sculpture from every possible angle. 🙂

We were also close to the shopping street of Santa Fe, and we managed to see the most beautiful bookstore in all of our travels. What once was a theatre, was converted into a large bookstore and cafe.

For the rest of the city, we really worked our legs out, especially one day when we took an approximately 4 hour walking tour from the beautifully petal-littered, Plaza de San Martin, down pedestrian-street Florida Avenue, past the Galeria Pacifico and its muraled ceilings, then down along Diagonal Norte to visit Plaza de Mayo, home to the Metropolitan Cathedral and Casa Rosada.

After a brief moment we then walked along Avenida de Mayo to stop in Cafe Tortoni, which was mentioned in the Lonely Planet. While the food was OK, we were more interested in the tango shows that they advertised. So, before we left the cafe, we had ourselves on the reservation’s list for the following evening’s show. We then continued on along Avenida de Mayo towards the congress buildings, took a few shots and then started for the long way home.

When we returned to Cafe Tortoni, we decided that we would walk from our apartment to the cafe, but to also take a taxi cab home after the show. We timed it and it was about a 50 minute walk, door to door. Anyways, the show was incredible. The dances were sultry and the band was incredible. The accordian player (of all things) nearly stole the show, he was that good. It was a similar stage to the flamenco dancing we saw in Sevilla, Spain, which was pretty intimate and without a bad seat in the house, but we were lucky enough to be in the front row. After the show we hailed a taxi and successfully directed the driver to our apartment, entirely in Spanish – success!

On another day we decided to take on the metro system, which we used as an excuse to hop on to check out the Palmero area of the city, specifically, Palmero Viejo. Unfortunately, the metro in Buenos Aires isn’t quite as accessible as most of the European cities we’ve been to, but a short walk never hurt anybody. Besides, 4.40 argentian pesos (that’s about $1 CDN) for the both of us, round trip was a price we couldn’t complain about. Palmero Viejo was a great spot to explore, with tons of boutique shops and a plethora of restaurants. It impressed us so much that we’re considering staying in this neighbourhood if we find ourselves back in Buenos Aires (which will likely occur when we depart from South America). While I was drooling over the fashions, Dan was drooling over the contemporary designs of the stores themselves. We had never before been to a spot where the stores were sometimes even more interesting than the product! Another thing that impressed Dan was the authentic mexican restaurant we found, which offered up some pretty cheap tacos and decently priced beer. The small colorful tables and mismatched stools made us feel like we were actually in Mexico.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading over to the Eco Yoga Park, an hour away from Buenos Aires to do some ‘eco-volunteering’, which we’re looking forward to doing. It’ll be a nice to take a break from being a tourist and hopefully learn something new.